Orphan Black Episode 8 Recap

Orphan Black Episode 8 Recap: "One Fettered Slave"

If you, like me, thought last week's episode of Orphan Black was hard, then buckle up — and maybe cover your eyes. "One Fettered Slave" begins with a straight-on shot of Rachel's loose eyeball, and just gets worse from there. For the sake of my stomach, and yours, let's just skip ahead to after they patch her up and we learn our first bit of shocking information: Ferdinand Chevalier saved Rachel, and has been in cahoots with Mrs. S this whole time — though she's still hiding it from her family.

Speaking of reunions, there's another (of sorts) over with Sarah. Kira and Charlotte finally meet, and over with Cosima, she and Delphine are cozying up before their Skype date with the rest of the clones. Just as the call is initiated, however, Felix bursts through the door with Adele, back from Europe. He reminds everyone that his big art opening is that night, which prompts Mrs. S to tell the clones that it's time to stand down — for one night — and just have fun.

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If you want the opposite of fun, let's check in with Helena. She and Gracie are hiding out at the convent, but Helena is suspicious of her motives. Turns out, it's for good reason. Later, as soon as Helena leaves the room, Gracie gets a call from Mark, ensuring that she's properly located Helena in exchange for a cure from Coady. However, after observing Helena for the day and developing a soft spot, Gracie tells Mark that she still hasn't found her.

Don't forget about Alison, who's still on her carefree kick. Felix kicks her and Donnie out of the gallery space almost as soon as they get there. He can't have all the clones there when it opens because important people, like Ezra, an art critic he met in Europe, are taking a look at his work.

While everyone else is standing down, Cosima and Scott talk over a plan. She wants to go around curing all the clones — they just need to find out how many there are. Delphine leaves in the middle of their conversation and meets with Mrs. S to chat with Rachel and Ferdinand.

"I so love being in the middle of all of this," Ferdinand says as he opens the door to the hotel room he and Rachel are hiding out in. While all the people present come from different sides of the struggle, they all have the same goal: Bring down neolution before it gets to them first.

Before she can expose this to the world, however, Mrs. S just needs Rachel to give her the evidence she needs to prove it.

Meanwhile, everyone is beginning to enjoy themselves at Felix's art opening. There's even an old friend, Colin, in attendance, and it seems like things between him and Felix might be heating back up. We can't dwell on it for too long, however, because Ezra is in attendance and Felix realises his show isn't as impressive as he thought. Luckily, it's Alison to the rescue. She suggests turning the opening into a sort of performance piece — so they decide to clone swap before everyone's eyes. Thanks to the ingenuity of the clones, and a killer dance scene, it works.

Before Ferdinand goes to meet with the board, Rachel convinces him to use the meeting to expose neolution. She says that once this happens, they can run off together, and it's almost laughable how gullible Ferdinand is to her plan — if it weren't also kind of sad.

When Sarah finally arrives at Felix's party — after Alison and Cosima have taken their turns around the room — she's highly suspicious. She got Adele to tell her that Mrs. S was working with Ferdinand, and no one seems to know what she's up to.

But what she's up to is this: When Ferdinand goes to the board meeting to reveal his evidence against Westmoreland, he realises he's been betrayed. The flash drive Rachel gave him doesn't actually have any evidence on it. This was Mrs. S and Rachel's plan all along. Back at the hotel room, they browse the real evidence as they wait for Ferdinand to suffer the wrath of the board.

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"He won't be coming back," Rachel laments.

Over with Helena, she's listened to the messages on Gracie's phone and discovered that she's working with Mark. Gracie reveals, however, that she told Mark she couldn't find Helena — that she's on Helena's side now. This means that they have to leave or risk Mark and Coady tracing the phone. When they try, however, Engers intercepts them. She and her crew capture Helena and shoot Gracie in the head.

Finally, Mrs. S makes it to the party and at last explains to Sarah and Felix what's going on: Rachel gave them the proof they need. They're about to be free — all of them.

Everyone's happy, so of course, there's a snag. Despite Rachel and Mrs. S' expectations, Ferdinand survives the board's retaliation. He immediately heads back to Rachel and tries to kill her before losing his nerve and running away — to Mrs. S' house. He's waiting for her when she gets home.

Luckily, Rachel gave her advanced warning. Mrs. S is prepared with guns stashed all over the house. She and Ferdinand decide to put down their guns for just a moment, and Mrs. S reveals that all the information is going public as they speak. In retaliation, Ferdinand pulls another gun out of his pocket and shoots Mrs. S in the chest. As she lays there, she manages to shoot him right back in the neck.

"Do you know as a woman I'm 14% more likely to survive a gunshot wound than you?" she says. "Maybe not this one, but...okay it's been a good run."

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Mrs. S, the woman who has been with us since season 1, who's been responsible for saving so many lives, and for finally, maybe, almost, freeing the clones, has met her end.